The school board in Newtown, Conn., voted unanimously Thursday night to request an armed guard for each of the district’s four elementary schools.

The armed “security resource officers,” or SROs, operate in the district’s high school and middle schools. According to the school board, the minutes of whose meeting are available online, there has been wide support for adding the officers to elementary schools since the tragic Sandy Hook shooting almost two months ago.

The vote comes at a time when there is an ongoing public debate about school security in which Newtown has been evoked time and time again.

In a Dec. 21 address, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre advocated for armed guards in schools, arguing that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”